This invention relates to protective joint and body pads such as those worn during sports and other activities, and more particularly to an improved padding construction for virtually any such body and joint pads, the novel padding construction and arrangement in a preferred form of the invention utilizing multiple layers of bubble cushioning material sandwiched together in particular, desired arrangement to form an improved padding member configured to supplement or more preferably entirely replace the heretofore typical padding arrangement used in protective and safety pads currently available in the marketplace.
As is well known in the industry, a wide variety of different protective safety pads of a multitude of various different descriptions have been provided for athletes, recreational enthusiasts, construction workers and other users such as household workers and gardners, for a wide variety of purposes and uses. Generally these protective pads fall into two basic catagories: A first type having a soft, fabric outer covering, and a second type having a hard shell outer cover. Examples of different safety pad arrangements to which this invention applies include, but are not limited to, soft cover types of body and joint pads such as knee pads, elbow pads, thigh, hip, forearm, shin and tailbone pads used in such sports as football, volley ball, soccer, etc.; wrestling head gear; gardening and light duty knee pads to mention but a few. Examples of hard shell safety pads are also well known to virtually everyone, and include football and hockey shoulder pad assemblies; soccer, baseball and hockey shin and forearm pads; hard shell knee and elbow pads as used by roller bladers, skateboarders, construction workers, flooring installers, etc. Additionally, hard shell protective safety pads are also provided in the well-recognized form of helmets and hard hats configured for various well known purposes such as helmets for motorcycle and bicycle riding, roller blading, skateboarding, baseball, football and hockey, as well as a variety of construction hard hat arrangements, all being but a few examples of the wide variety of protective body pad gear in wide use for specialized purposes.
While various different padding and padding arrangements have been provided heretofore, and extensive study has gone into the development of the padding for these pads, it is substantially universal that the focus of the padding constructions of the prior art has been limited to cushioning arrangements directed to attempting to lessen impact conditions and their potential for injury, with little concern to user comfort and alternative impact-absorbing arrangements. Invariably the cushioning padding utilized in protective and safety padding is dense foam, felt, cotton, gel or complex and expensive inflatable bladder arrangements which all provide various degrees of protection against the impact of a blow. Unfortunately however they do little, if anything, in adequately diffusing the forces of such impact more broadly over the surface area of the user's body covered by and protected by the safety pad. The result is that, while the safety pads of the prior art do protect somewhat against serious impact, they do little to reduce the pain of such impact. Indeed, even in non impact situations, the cushioning is largely inadequate for comfort in constant pressure situations as, for example, in use by flooring installers who must constantly kneel throughout their work days. As all are well familiar with, the dense foam and other cushioning arrangements of knee pads of today's art create very painful pressure points on the kneeling areas of the legs which over time make kneeling with knee pads nearly as uncomfortable as if the user were kneeling directly on the hard floor surface he is working on.
It is therefore believed that it is readily apparent that a need exists in the marketplace for a new padding arrangement which is arranged to be more protective in heavy impact situations that current cushioning materials provide and also configured for comfort and for elimination of pressure points in use.